Devil May Cry 5: Angela Lacrima
by Hime Shinra
Summary: 2009 NaNoWriMo winner  The story is about Dante's daughter, and her name is Angel. Dante never knew that on that fateful night after he found a daughter he never knew existed, his life changed forever. Follow the story as Angel grows up!
1. Prologue

It was an evening with a clear sky. Stars can be clearly seen, and the wind is blowing occasionally. It was a perfect night to sit back and relax with friends outside in Santo Cielo, a beach town known for its resort-like environment and noted as one of the best vacation spot in the world.

Except that tonight, a huge fire broke out at the local orphanage.

"Make way! Make way! Victims are being evacuated!"

Firefighters were spraying water towards the torched building. The whole building was on fire, making the sky colored with bright red. People were watching in the streets, confusion and pity were seen in their expressions

"Who on earth would torch up an orphanage?"

"Whoever did it is out of their minds!"

Suddenly, two firefighters came running out of the building. They were panting heavily, as if something had possessed them. One of the firefighter who was fighting outside, who seemed to be the leader of the unit, came approaching them with disappointment in his face

"What happened? I thought you both supposed to evacuate the victims left inside the building, and you came out running in panic! Are you guys saying that you're afraid of fire?"

Trembling, one of the two firefighters spoke out, "We're sorry sir, but we saw something inside… and we believe that it… it might be the cause of the fire… and we… we need special help for eliminating it… otherwise it would be impossible to extinguish the fire"

The unit leader slightly twitched his eyebrows "What is it?"

"It's…demons, sir"

"Demons?! Are you sure?!"

Both of the firefighters nodded, still trembling. From their expressions and their body gestures, the unit leader can tell that they're not lying.

"I'll call a special backup unit immediately" he mumbled.

He quickly reached into his pocket for his phone.

---

Meanwhile, at the outskirts of Santo Cielo, a red AC Cobra can be seen on the road speeding up towards the beach town, with a white-haired man clad in red leather coat on the driver's seat. The speedometer is rising above the speed limit written on the signs along the way, and he seemed to not care, neither showing any intention to slow down. The road is empty, and the wind is blowing hard because the location of the road is on a high cliff near the sea. Had he been there at daytime, he can see beautiful clear blue sea on the left side of the road and caught the side of the marina bay area, the icon of Santo Cielo.

The man was enjoying his drift until his cellphone suddenly rings. He quickly released his left hand's grip from the steering wheel, hits the phone dock hard that the phone jumps off the car dock and flipped open, grabs the phone, push the answer button and say a simple "Yeah?", remaining calm and collected.

He listened to the caller, and his face expression suddenly turned intense. _A customer with a password, _he muttered under his breath. "I'm on my way. I'll be there in fifteen minutes"

He throw his phone away and the black Sony Ericsson flipped close and landed back on the phone dock automatically as if the phone got a strong magnet with it. Straightening his sitting position, he took a deep breath and drive even faster towards the beach town.


	2. Chapter 1: Rescued

As he went through the entrance gate of Santo Cielo, he could see a bright colored red and orange flame and a pool of black smoke above coming somewhere from the middle of the town. He quickly stepped on the gas and the blaring red sports car disappeared in the distance, towards the burning building.

Back in the orphanage, the unit leader and his assistants started to warn everyone to leave. "Everyone, we would like to ask for your cooperation! Please leave this place immediately! Residents, who live near the orphanage, take your necessary belongings immediately and evacuate to the marina bay area until further notice!"

But the firefighters warning were ignored. The crowd started to protest.

"Excuse me, would you please tell us what happened? Why do we have to evacuate?" one of the residents asked

"It's just a simple fire! Nobody lives that near the orphanage anyways! Why do we have to go as far as the marina bay? It's useless!"

"Rather than telling us to leave, why don't you work harder to extinguish the fire?!"

"Yeah, don't be so busy babbling to us that when you realized the whole Santo Cielo had turned into ash!"

The firefighters and the unit leader gave up. They went further away near one of the trucks.

"It's no use, sir. They won't leave!" one of the firefighters spoke up "Let's just tell the truth to them, sir!" the other added. But the unit leader shook his head.

"No, we can't. It would create even more chaos... Besides, I already call a special backup unit. He will arrive in a few minutes"

Just after the unit leader finished speaking, they heard a smooth sound of engine coming. They looked up further beyond the crowds, and saw a white-haired man clad in red driving an AC cobra.

"It's him" the unit leader spoke up.

The man somehow made his way through the firefighters' area and met up with the unit leader. The unit leader took his helmet off and gave a friendly hug to the white-haired man.

"Dante! Long time no see, man!"

"Hey, Enzo. Long time no see too"

Enzo grinned. "Where have you been all these years? You suddenly disappeared from Santo Cielo and leave those poor ladies alone! And my, you're looking dandy all right!" he said, giving him a friendly slap on the back.

"We'll catch up later, Enzo. You can't be possibly calling me all the way here in this kind of place only for an idle chat, right?"

Enzo slapped his head "Aaah, yeah… right, right. We'd better off to business, shall we? Here's the deal, some demons are here inside this building and one of our units got a hunch that those things are the ones causing fire. I heard that you're the right person to turn to for dealing with this kind of err… thing"

The white-haired man, Dante, took a deep breath and brushed his finger on the tip of his nose "Yeah, I can smell it. Wait here and you're your men to keep extinguishing the fire from the outside, I'll go in. Are there any people left inside?"

Enzo turned to one of his men who went inside, his stare already signed enough that he's demanding for answer. The firefighter finally realized, and quickly answered with a nervous voice "Oh! Um, I… I'm not sure, sir … b-but I think saw a few children left… and uh, some were dead, sir. I, uh, reckon that they're being murdered by the…. uh, demons"

Dante's eyes turned wide. He quickly dug through his pocket and throws his black Sony Ericsson away to Enzo, who barely manages to catch it. Had he missed an inch, the phone will land on the wet asphalt-coated ground with a crash and might possibly break into pieces – he knew how brute his old friend could be. The ex-mercenary then grabbed a hose from a fireman, soaked himself wet enough and dashed inside the building.

"Sir! I-is that… okay? I mean, he entered the building without any proper protection!" one of the fireman protested. But Enzo just smiled "Nah, I've known him for years and trust me, he's not an ordinary man. He isn't the type who will die that easy"

Inside the burning orphanage, Dante tried to find his way to reach where the demons are located. Along his way, he found dead children on the floor. From the way they look, they seemed to be brutally murdered by demons. Dante cringed at the sight with disgust and quickly turned away. He pulled out Rebellion from its sheath and continued his search.

"Damn, I have to find them quickly. I hope I'm not too late…"

He then walked further into the building, keeping his senses open so that he'll be ready to attack whenever a demon appears. Just when he was about to go further, he heard a scream. His eyes went wide and he quickly ran towards where the scream came from. Just as he thought – it's the demons. They were apparently attacking a helpless child until Dante came. Blood spattered everywhere, and it seemed that the others were already killed before Dante came. Just as one of them was about to give a final blow to the child, he slides through from the door and kicked the demon so hard that it ended up thrown away to the fire and soon disappear into ash. Seeing that the newcomer is a threat for them, the pack of demons starts to attack. Dante quickly swung his Rebellion and sliced them. After making sure each of them dead, Dante quickly approached the child that was attacked by the demons. He felt his heart burning as if a sword just stabbed through, seeing that the child turned out to be a little girl that seemed no more than four years old, and her shoulder-long hair was completely soaked with blood, making it turn into a blackish red color. He looked around, and saw that the other children were dead. She was the only survivor.

"Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me?" He asked, panicking. He shook the girl a little, and he was relieved to see the little girl's eyes open and she was still breathing. But of course, she was weak and hurt badly. Worried that she might ended up dead if it's too late, Dante sheathed Rebellion on his back, took the girl in his arms and dashed to the exit path.

_I hope I'm not too late… _

He suddenly stopped when he realized that blood is dripping from her hair and showed a bit of her real hair color.

It was a strand of silver, just like his.


	3. Chapter 2: Conversation Between Friends

The birds are chirping and the sun was shining. It was a seemingly perfect morning in Santo Cielo. People were visiting the orphanage that burned down last night, leaving bouquets of flowers as a sign of mourning. The local paper had put the incident on headline, saying that there are no survivors and the cause of the fire is demon attack. Enzo finally decided to let the media know the truth, but what he didn't understand is, Dante specifically requested him to say 'no survivors' even though there is one – and she barely managed to.

After giving a final inspection and declared that the fire has been totally extinguished, Enzo made his way to Santo Cielo Local Hospital. His unit members said that after he rescued the child, he went with the ambulance. It's just odd, he thought. He knew that Dante is a great person with children and have soft spot on them, but not this fond. Usually after a mission, Dante would just go get the pay and leave. But many years had passed since he met him the last time, and he didn't know what happened to him all those years. All he heard is that he had some kind of paranormal detective agency and specialized in terminating demons.

When he arrived at the hospital, he asked the front office about the girl that was brought in last night, and he was told to go to the children's wing in 3rd floor. Using the elevator, he made his way to the 3rd floor and managed to find his way to the children's wing without asking the nurse. Just as he thought, Dante was there on the waiting area with a cup of coffee on his hand, and his red leather coat was draped over his unique-looking sword that was set leaning on the chair next to him – probably to avoid unnecessary attention because nobody in their right mind would bring that kind of thing to a hospital, and to the children's wing to boot.

"Hey" Enzo greeted him. Dante just grinned at him and waved his hand to reply his greet. Looking by the witch hazels below his ice blue eyes and his drowsy face, he can easily tell that the ex-mercenary has been staying up all night. He then sat next to Dante and sighed. Both men had a busy night, but at least Enzo managed to catch some sleep, while Dante clearly didn't have any sleep at all.

"Where's the girl?" Enzo asked

"Still in the intensive care unit. I haven't seen her since last night"

"You should get some sleep, you know. You look so messed up"

Dante sighed and leaned back on the chair "I know… I've been trying to, Enzo. But I can't and I don't know why. It's weird, I've never been sleep deprived because of no particular reason"

"You're worried about the girl?"

"I… I don't really know, man… But if I am worried, I'm not worried about her being able to survive or not"

"Then what are you worrying about?"

Dante didn't answer. He just sipped his cup of coffee and sighed again. Enzo wanted to ask, but he decided not to and changed the topic instead. If he couldn't convince him to rest, then at all he could do for his old friend right now is to make him ease his tense a little with a light conversation.

"So yeah, where have you been all this time, Dante? I've never heard from you anymore after you left Santo Cielo"

"Well… I'm just too busy working as a demon hunter all these years. You know how I always attract trouble, right?"

"Hahahahahahah! Still the same old Tony Redgrave I know!"

The two men laughed, "Oh come on, Enzo… cut the Tony crap! Anyways, how about you? Last time I was here you were still a mercenary agent playing with the ladies. How did you ended up becoming a firefighter?"

"Well, uh… shortly after you left, there was this massive operation in this town and all the mercenaries were caught and thrown to jail. I was caught too, but I was lucky enough to get out after two and a half years… some of our old pals weren't lucky enough, though. Most of them ended up with death penalty – you know how most of the mercenaries in this town act, right? It made our friends back in Bobby's Cellar look like saints! So yeah, I was allowed to get out but only if I agreed to work for the community… that's how I ended up becoming a firefighter"

"Whoa, you made a lot of progress in four years, man! You can tell that I'm really proud, right?"

"Thanks, man. Oh yeah, I even got myself a wife and we're expecting twins!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, congratulations man! So who's the unfortunate lady, huh? Lemme guess, Marina Bay Bar's Nancy Thurman?"

"Now Nancy Ferino, jackass"

"You lucky bastard, how the hell did you get such prima donna like that?! Watch out, now Dante's back in town and she might wanna catch up with some old sweet romance…"

"Hey! Dare to lay a hand on Nancy, and you'll find your dick with holes in less than twenty-four hours!"

"Easy, pal. I won't lay any of my hands on her, sheesh! Can't you take a joke?"

"Yeah yeah, I trust you. Besides, if you meet her now you'd prefer to see someone else! She's not the same old Nancy you used to play around with, now she's Nancy Ferino, I tell you! Nancy Ferino!"

"What's the difference?"

Enzo thought for a while, and finally spoke up "She's a pregnant woman now"

And they both laughed again. Both finally realized that even after those years, nothing had really changed. They were having fun talking about the past from way back when they were still in Bobby's Cellar and catching up with the present and Enzo told him about the wedding. The conversation was cut when a nurse approached Dante

"Excuse me, sir. She's awake now and you may see her"

Dante stood up "Oh…alright, thank you. Let's go see her now, shall we Enzo?"

"I'm sorry, sir. But the doctor only permits one visitor for her now. She still needs plenty of rests"

Dante and Enzo looked at each other "You go see her, Dante. I'll just watch your stuff here. Besides, I need to see some other doctor from the morgue soon… gotta do some incident reports about last night"

"Alright then, see you later"

"See you later, Dante"

But when Dante was about to go with the nurse, Enzo stopped him "Hey, wait! You uh, forgot this"

Enzo dug through his pocket and gave Dante's Sony Ericsson back to the owner. After saying thanks slightly, he ran back to the nurse and followed her while Enzo sat back on the waiting room chair next to the covered sword.

After a few minutes walking down the halls and corridors, the nurse finally stopped in front of a door and opened it for the devil hunter "Here you are, sir. Please remain quiet because the doctor is still inside doing some check-ups. If there are any questions you would like to ask, you may ask the doctor or me"

"Alright, thank you nurse"

As he stepped in, he prayed and hoped that what he saw that night was just a hallucination. But apparently, his prayers weren't answered by God. The first thing he saw when he came into the room was a girl sitting straight on a hospital bed…

…With a shoulder-length silver hair and a pair of ice blue eyes, staring back at him.


	4. Chapter 3: Who is She?

Dante was shocked. Of course, the ice blue eyes and the silver hair had proven more than enough that the girl is definitely a Sparda descendent and no doubt a half demon. But the one that shocked him is that he never seen a female Sparda descendent, and there is a possibility that there are more of his hidden brothers and sisters of his after Nero and this little girl. And he can feel it. This girl is definitely related to him. But how? She can't possibly be…

"Sir, please fill in this form. We need your daughter's medical record" a nurse suddenly said, and shoved a pen and a medical record form to him. Dante's eyes went wide in horror "Ex-excuse me?"

"Hey, he's not her father. This girl is an orphan from the orphanage fire incident last night" another nurse warned her colleague.

"Oh! S-sorry, sir… But I thought the news said that there are no survivors in that incident, and she looks just like you…"

The doctor sighed "The police and fire dept asked us to keep this information confidential. So we better be, otherwise things would get even worse"

"What do you mean by that?" Dante asked

The short-haired female doctor fixed her black-framed glasses with her finger as she keep on talking "I don't know what the police and fire dept people knows, but I know for sure that if the media finds out about her, this poor little girl has to say goodbye to peace and quiet. Anyways, you're Dante, right? I heard you're the one who saved her and brought her here last night. Of course you saw her state when she was just being rescued and look at her now – not even a single flesh wound"

Dante looked at her closely. No wonder something feels odd – there is not a single bandage or even a small cut on her body, and he was sure he was not seeing things when she saw her bleeding so much that her silver hair got soaked with dark crimson color.

Another factor that makes her a Sparda descendant.

The devil hunter soon realized that the doctor was looking at him in a weird manner. Her eyes keep shifting from him to the little girl.

"Why are you staring at me like that? Do I have something in my face?"

"No… it's just, I wonder what makes you and that girl look so close. Maybe that nurse was right, she is yours"

"Oh please, that's not funny!"

"I wonder… Have you been living in Santo Cielo previously?"

"Yeah, until around four years ago. What's the deal with you?"

"Makes you even more suspicious. Around four years ago… I was assigned by this hospital to investigate a weird phenomenon in the local orphanage…"

"And? What does it have to do with me?"

"A white-haired baby girl was found on the doorstep of the local orphanage"

Dante felt his heart stopped for a few seconds. He stared at the girl, who just watched them lifelessly without even making a single peep.

"There's no letter, not even a single clue about her parents. There is a clue, though. I think it was… a necklace. She's still wearing it now, you may wanna check on it"

He approached the little girl and pulled out a pendant dangling on her neck. It was a single angel wing made from silver. He recalled a few years ago buying a silver feather wing necklace from a shop near the Marina Bay Area and lost it the next day after a one night stand that he couldn't even remember because he was so drunk. He fell in silence for a few minutes, staring at the little girl's eyes and she stared back at Dante without fear even though he stared at her with intense – usually any children will cry if someone stared at them like that. Finally, Dante spoke up

"Hey doc, can you arrange a DNA test?"


	5. Chapter 4: Sign Language

It was a hot Sunday afternoon in the city where Devil May Cry stands. The devil hunter agency was empty as usual, with Dante sitting on his desk reading a book. The fan on the ceiling was spinning on a moderate speed as usual, and Kelly Osborne's music was blaring out loud from the jukebox. It was a perfectly normal Sunday afternoon in Devil May Cry until someone kicked the door open.

"Bathroom's at the back" the devil hunter said without even glancing up to see who's coming.

"It's us, dumbass" a familiar voice said. He looked up, and it's all of his friends – Lady, Trish, Morrison and even Patty Lowell are all there.

"Oh hey guys, what are you doing here?"

He could tell from their expression that they seemed to be pissed with something. He got a hunch on why, but he's not in the mood to guess and he knows that all his guesses are always correct and he's currently busy with something else. None of them answered, so he continued reading his book. Lady finally stepped forward and banged on his desk.

"Hey! What's the deal, woman?"

"We're the one who's supposed to say that, Dante! What's the deal with suddenly missing for months after that last mission and you called Morrison all the way from Santo Cielo to get some papers to adopt a child? Are you out of your mind?"

"Dante, please tell me that this is one of your hard-to-get humors. You can't possibly be serious when you said that you're going to adopt a child… right?" Trish added.

But the devil hunter didn't even move from his desk. He just flicked through another page and his eyes didn't even shift to the two ladies – which now stared at each other and sighed –sign of hopelessness. Patty and Morrison finally came forward.

"Hey, old fart! Would you please listen to the ladies once in a while? We came all the way here not to be treated like statues!" Patty cried. But Dante just flicked another page and say "Popsicles are in the fridge, Patty" she groaned, but walked obediently towards the kitchen. Even though they haven't meet for a while and Patty is a high-school student already, he knew that she still buys the Popsicle trick. Finally, Morrison spoke up

"Hey Dante, I got the papers you asked here"

"Thanks, Morrison. Put them on the table, I'll fill it in later"

"Hey, I am not giving these papers just like that! They're really hard to get, you know"

"So how much should I pay?" he said, flicking another page of his book.

"That's exactly my point, Dante! You don't have a proper job, you don't have the funds to raise a child, and you... no social worker will dare to leave a child to be raised in a hellhole like this! And top of that, they won't even want a child to deal with an irresponsible man like you in the first place! Dante, if you want to raise a child, I suggest that you fix that attitude of yours, settle down, do your job properly and act more serious! You're not a good example for children, you know that?"

Morrison kept on talking and talking, but Dante didn't seem to really listen. Lady finally lost her patience and grabbed the book away from him. The devil hunter just stared at his now blank hands, sighed and raised his feet onto the desk. Meanwhile, the four who were lecturing him were gathered to see what was the book that he's so busy reading – even he will listen to their lectures when he read porn magazines. They couldn't believe their eyes.

"American Sign Language?"

"What the heck? Since when do you read stuffs like these?"

Their gaze moved towards the devil hunter who is now slouching back on his chair with his legs crossed on top of his table. Before any of them managed to speak, suddenly they heard a creaky sound from the door upstairs. They all glanced up, only to see a little white-haired girl sobbing in front of the door. She was wearing a simple white dress just above her knee.

"Hey, why were you crying? I thought you're having a nap"

The little girl didn't answer. Instead, she moved her hands in an odd and somehow controlled way. Everyone except Dante twitched their eyebrows – they knew it is sign language since Dante is reading the American Sign Language book, but what for?

But Dante just sighed and smiled "Come down then, you can sleep on daddy's lap until you feel better"

The others were surprised hearing Dante mentioning himself as _daddy_. Is he really serious about this? They watched the little girl walking down the stairs, went passed the crowd to Dante's desk, and jumped into his laps. He then lifted her up and settled her on his laps so she could get comfortable. It didn't take her long. Soon she stopped fidgeting and he started to stroke her hair gently.

"She just had a nightmare" Dante finally explained. Everyone gestured an 'oh' without making a voice, and expression of confusion were wiped out of their faces. They watched him calming his soon-to-be daughter, and he became somehow different. Even all those years they knew him, they never saw the son of Sparda making such a gentle, loving face. Suddenly, the little girl moved again. He looked at her and she moved her hands again. This time he just nodded and told her to sit up straight. She shifted her body again, this time facing the others.

"Let me introduce you to my friends – this is Morrison, Trish, Lady, and Patty. Everyone, this is Angel"

Before any of them managed to reply, she smiled and moved her hands again. They all twitched, but Dante quickly added "She said 'nice to meet you'"

Lady stepped forward closer to them and stroked her head "Nice to meet you too, Angel" she smiled, and Angel smiled back. The way she smiled reminded everyone of a certain demon hunter that claimed to be her daddy. But after looking at them for quite a long time, she suddenly became nervous and turned her eyes towards Dante.

'Daddy, are they going to take me away from you?'

This time, Dante also replied with sign language 'How did you know that?'

'Actually I heard it… they didn't like me staying with you, right? But I don't want to go…'

'Relax, baby girl. If someone's trying to take you away from me, even my own friends, I'll kill them for sure!' Dante put his pointy finger below his neck and moved it as if he was cutting his neck with his finger to indicate the word 'kill'. Angel and Dante laughed, but she was laughing in an almost voiceless way and sounds more like a squeak. She suddenly coughed hard, and Dante quickly wrapped her in a hug and stroked her back gently. He turned to the others who were just watching, and he knew that they're waiting for answers.

"Hey Patty, would you mind fetching some strawberry sundaes for me at the usual diner? Angel, go with Patty, would you?"

Patty felt awkward and reluctant to go with a girl she doesn't know about at all, but after Dante shoved 50 bucks to her hands and told her to keep the change if she wants to, she couldn't refuse. Dante then kissed Angel on her forehead and told her to go with Patty. She jumped down from her daddy's chair and Patty took her hand with a smile, then the two ran out of Devil May Cry.


	6. Chapter 5: The Mute Little Snow White

After the door got closed and the sound of footsteps on the porch dissolved and finally disappeared, the four adults started their conversation.

"Dante, is she…?" Trish suddenly spoke up, but Dante answered before she finally managed to finish her sentence

"Mute. The doctor and I told her that her voice-box was damaged by demons during the incident, but the truth is I put a demon power seal on her. That's why she lost her voice… the real damage on her voice-box was supposed to be temporary, but the seal made it almost permanent for her to talk again."

Hearing that, Lady's eyes turned wide and she banged the desk "What did you say? You put a demon power seal on her? Why did you do such harsh thing like that to a little girl?"

"Lady, I don't need to tell you that she's demon-blooded, right?"

"Of course I know! Where the hell can you find a human white-haired little girl?"

"Have you guys heard about the incident in Santo Cielo last week?"

"About the burned local orphanage, right?" Morrison suddenly spoke up

"Correct. The newspaper said that it was a gas leak and there are no survivors left. But actually, it was one of my missions – some fire demons went in there and killed all the children. She was attacked by demons when I found her and she lost so much blood that her hair was soaked with it and its color turned darkish red, but the next day after she was brought into the hospital, there's not even a single scratch on her body. I told them to shut up from the media because I don't want her to be seen as some kind of a circus attraction and… to tell you the truth, those demons came to hunt her down"

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"Fire demons do not come out in random like those scarecrows we deal with in Fortuna. They came for specific reasons, usually to hunt down things that their master told them to… or if they don't have any master, then they might just came out to hunt for things that makes them stronger. That's why… I locked her demon powers to make her demonic traits dormant - makes it harder for the demons to track her down"

They all went silent until Lady spoke up again "Hey Dante, how did you know she's yours?"

Dante opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a piece of paper that turned out to be a DNA test result letter – it turned out to be positive.

"You… Who's the mother?"

"I don't know"

"How come?"

"Dude, I was a total Casanova in Santo Cielo! I have too many one-night-stands to even remember each of their faces! And there's a possibility that it might be tourists!"

The girls made funny faces, then Trish gave a hard slap on his face "You dirty bastard. Hey wait… how come they didn't mention her name in this DNA confirmation letter?"

"Back then, I haven't named her yet. She inhaled too much smoke and she got her head hurt really hard… she didn't have any memory of her life before the incident – not even her own name."

"But of course, someone must have known her name…"

"Nope, nobody knows. Not even the doctor who checked her when she was a baby. All the papers were destroyed in the fire so I have to arrange everything by myself, including naming her"

"Why did you name her Angel?" Trish asked

"What, is it a bad name?"

"No… it's just… weird, contradictive"

"Yeah, she's demon-blooded and her daddy's a half demon. But… I think she's too beautiful and too cute to be one"

"Yeah, seeing her smile… it's kinda remind me of yours, but in an innocent way"

"Nah, she's not a dumbass like me. She's really smart, you know. I can tell. She even learned sign language faster than me"

Morrison, who was flapping the American Sign Language book randomly most of the time finally spoke again. "Well, seeing that you've made a decision and how you were serious about it…" he hold the book up to let people see the familiar chicken scratch notes next to the sign language pictures – obviously written by Dante. Suddenly, papers fell out of the book. Morrison crouched down to pick them up, but those papers are only filled with childish but tidy writing of A B Cs

"You taught her to write?" he asked

"Yeah… it's to help her learning sign language. She can write A to Z now. I'm currently thinking on how to teach her more about reading and writing… I can't send her to kindergarten, as if I have money to afford special school for the handicapped"

The three adults standing in front of the desk were speechless. They can't believe that the person sitting in front of them is Dante, the son of the legendary dark knight Sparda, the badass devil hunter who seemed to never grow up. The three fell in silence until they heard the door open. Their eyes instantly turned to the door, and it's the two girls they've been waiting for.

"Sorry for taking so long! I took Angel to the park for a little while!" Patty said, holding a paper bag with Dante's favorite diner's logo on her right hand – which they all assumed as Dante's strawberry sundae – and Angel's hand on the left. As soon as her eyes turned to her daddy, she freed her right hand from Patty and ran towards Dante, both of her hands now put behind her back. Patty smiled and put her pointy finger in front of the lips, telling Morrison, Trish and Lady not to tell Dante anything.

"Hey Angel, what happened to you? How come you get your dress all dirty?"

Angel didn't seem to listen. She just ran towards Dante and when she stopped, she pulled one of her hands in front of her daddy and told him something using sign language, and closed his eyes. She then put something on top of his head, and tapped one of his shoulders. He opened his eyes and she pointed to the mirror, only to see a flower coronet on top of his head. The others giggled, trying to hold their laugh. A devil hunter smiling with flowers on his head is not something you see everyday – especially if you're talking about a certain half demon named Dante.

"You made this for me?"

Angel smiled proudly and nodded 'Patty taught me how to make them' she signed.

"Thank you very much, sweetie! I love it!"

He wrapped her in a bear hug, lifted her up and he stood up from his chair, walked to the middle of devil may cry and started to spin her around. Morrison, Trish, Lady and Patty had to move out of the way to make sure they won't get knocked off. After a lot of spinning and throwing in the air, He finally landed himself on the sofa, with Angel being held tight in his arms in front of his chest. Dante laughed hard and Angel giggled. The others can't help but smile at the scene. Seeing the paper bag that Patty bought earlier lying on the table in front of them, Dante leaned forward and pulled the strawberry sundae and plastic spoon out of the paper bag.

'Daddy, what is that?' she signed

"This? This is strawberry sundae, sweetie. The best food you can eat on earth!"

He opened the top clear plastic lid and put it on the table, then grabbed the plastic spoon and scooped into the sundae.

"Okay baby, open your mouth…."

Angel opened her mouth obediently, and he inserted a spoon of the ice-cream along with a piece of strawberry and sauce.

"Does it taste good?"

Angel's eyes went wide and she gave a big smile to her daddy, giving a thumbs-up to him and then signing 'I want more!' to him. He then ate the rest of the sundae together with his daughter, and seeing them together eating strawberry sundae makes the others realized, that Angel is truly the daughter of Dante Sparda, he loves her very much, and she loves him too.


	7. Chapter 6: Spring Cleaning

Angel was busy sitting on the corner of Devil May Cry reading American Sign Language for Children book with Patty. The adults are busy moving and cleaning things here and there, childproofing the shop and making sure it's appropriate for the social workers to see. After last week they met with Angel for the first time, Lady, Trish, Morrison and Patty decided to let Dante keep his daughter with a condition – letting them help raise Angel. Dante was more than agree on that, since he admitted that he needed help. After making lots of phone calls and filling in lots of papers, finally the social workers decided that they're going to make a visit to Devil May Cry next week. After receiving the notification letter, he quickly called them up and asked for help – and this is why Devil May Cry had gone through a total makeover since morning. Lady was cleaning the whole shop with the help of Morrison, while Dante went out with Trish to Wal-Mart to buy some furniture and clothes for Angel.

"Alright, so this is P – A – T – T – Y?" Patty asked Angel, moving her hands trying to spell her name with sign language. Angel shook her head and signed the correct "T" while pointing to the alphabet T on her book. Patty realized that she missed "T" with "S" and fixed her finger position. Angel nodded and smiled, and Patty smiled back too. Dante is right, she thought. His daughter is smart for a four-year-old, unlike him who always acted like a jerk…

Lady and Morrison were just finished dumping the trashes outside when they heard the sound of a car engine coming closer. Dante had borrowed Morrison's Chevrolet truck to carry all the stuffs he bought for his daughter in Wal-Mart because his AC Cobra won't fit – Trish coming along with him. Angel quickly ran towards the door, Patty soon following at the back. The little white-haired girl then opened the door to reveal that it is really Morrison's Chevrolet truck with tons of stuffs to fill in Angel's room and to fix the shop on the back. When Dante went out of the car, Angel quickly approached him and grasped his legs. He lifted her up and kissed her cheeks.

"Hey baby Angel, are you being a good girl while daddy's gone?" he asked. Angel smiled and nodded, and then he dropped her down "Okay, I have something special for a good girl!"

He dug into the car seat and went out again with a white bunny plush on his hands, with a blue bow tied on its neck. She smiled and hugged her daddy tight, clutching on his red leather coat. He then gave her the plush into her small white hands, and she hugged it. The devil hunter can't help but smile.

"Her name is Snow. Please take good care of her, ok?" Trish added, and kissed Angel's forehead.

She signed something with her hands, but Trish just raised an eyebrow.

"She's asking why her name is Snow" Dante said.

"Well, it's because her fur is white and beautiful, just like snow"

Angel signed some more, but this time Dante's the one who raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Trish asked

"She's asking what snow is"

Trish stroked her head "Well, Santo Cielo is a beach town and it's summer-all-year-round in there. She must have never seen one before, or probably she forgot. Don't worry, Angel. You'll see snow by December in this city and we're going to play a lot with it, okay?"

Angel didn't understand, but she just smiled and nodded and hugged her bunny again, then Dante carried her inside to Devil May Cry.

Finally after a week, they were able to make Devil May Cry look way better than before. It doesn't look like a teen rebel hideout anymore, but more to a proper home office. Of course Dante still have his pool table, silver ornaments, his musical instruments and his beloved jukebox. But now it's a lot cleaner and smells like lemon air freshener coming from the floor and windows. The girls think that it's better and makes a fresher image to the shop, but Dante kinda hates it because the smell of lemon makes his eyes sore. His weapons are now stowed in a safe room that is locked with electric combination (which he got for free from a client who owned an electric store that he helped a few times) so that they're out of reach from Angel's hands (and hidden away from the social workers that will come tomorrow and civilians that might visit him) the holes on the floors and walls are fixed (even repainted), bathroom becomes squeaky clean filled with hygiene necessities and bath toys, and the most important part that Dante spends the most on – Angel's room. Apparently, he is spoiling his daughter too much despite of Trish's warning, and most of the room is covered with toys (boy's toys, apparently). Her bed is covered with rainbow-colored bed sheet and her favorite dolls on top of it (that includes Snow, of course) a mobile of flowers from different seasons is hanging on the ceiling right above the bed. Her wardrobe too, is filled with clothes (most of them boyish, thanks to her daddy's taste). Morrison made a dollhouse and bookshelf out of leftover wood that was used for fixing the floor, Trish arranged Barbie and Ken dolls and furniture in the dollhouse (Which she bought herself, of course. Dante didn't want to buy her girl toys because he doesn't want her to grow up as a sassy girl but Trish bought her girl toys anyway) and Lady already filled the bookshelf with children's books. There was this particular old classic storybook from her mother that she kept since childhood and she decided to give it to Angel – The Legend of Sparda. Apparently, Angel liked that book so much that she always asked Dante to read it for her whenever she wanted to. Despite of being able to hear, she preferred her father to read it in sign language. She said it's funny to see Dante making expressions and gestures, especially the fight of Sparda with the king of demons. They wonder if it is true, because Dante would never allow Lady, Patty or Trish to come inside Angel's room when Dante is reading The Legend of Sparda to her – even as far as locking the bedroom door until he's done. Once he forgot to lock the door and the three girls didn't miss the chance to peek. When they look inside, they instantly realized that the little demon-blooded girl is not lying – Dante is hilarious when he's reading the storybook about his father's legend using sign language. With childish gestures and funny faces, he told the story page by page, stopping only to flap the book to the next page or read the texts. It doesn't take him long until he realized that the three girls are watching – they burst out laughing and rolling on the floor, and didn't even stop when he came out with a very unhappy face. He was too cross and embarrassed, and when he glared and growled under his teeth, instead of stopping or being scared, they just laughed more. He then swore to himself to NEVER forget to lock the fucking door when he's reading The Legend of Sparda to Angel.

On the night before the social workers came, Dante was tucking his daughter to bed – reading The Legend of Sparda as usual in sign language. After the story ends, he told her to lay down and pulled her bed sheet up and kissed her soft cheeks. Dante was about to get up from the bed and turned off the light when Angel tugged his sleeves softly.

"What is it, baby Angel?" he asked. Even though he knew that his daughter is too big to be called a baby, but he somehow likes it.

'Can I ask you something?' she signed.

"Sure. Is something bothering you?"

'Sparda is a demon, right?'

Dante nodded "Yeah…"

'Then why does he fell in love with a human lady?'

The demon hunter went speechless. He never thought of it – why does his father fell in love with his mother and decided to betray his own kind and fight for humans?

"Because… the human lady is so kind and beautiful?"

He felt awkward saying that, talking about the reason why his parents fell for each other to his own daughter.

'But I thought demons are evil. The book says so'

He almost laughed hearing her saying that. Doesn't she realize that she herself is also demon-blooded?

"Well, Sparda is a kind demon…" God, he can't believe himself saying something like that.

'Do kind demons really exist?'

He just sighed and smiled, speechless of his daughter's innocence. "They do, Angel. They do. Maybe somewhere out there… a devil is crying because they lost their dear ones"

The little girl became confused with her father's words, and he knows that she is"…Never mind, it's time for bed now. We have a big day tomorrow. Goodnight, baby Angel"

She signed 'Goodnight, Daddy' and after he gave a goodnight kiss on her soft cheeks, he switched the lights off and turned on the nightlight, then went out of the room. Meanwhile, she closed her eyes and hugged Snow tightly below the warm covers.

After closing Angel's bedroom door, Dante then made his way down the stairs to the first floor of Devil May Cry, stepping on each of the newly installed half-spiral staircase gently to make sure that he won't disturb his daughter. He saw the ladies at the newly furnished kitchen area that was built like a bar, set next to the stairs, right below the second floor balcony. The island counter was made of light-colored wood built in a curvy shape, stretching from the right side of the staircase to the pillar where sword Sparda was once hung, and the top of the counter was made of strong, clear glass where photos can be put on the bottom. Right on top of the island counter, four lamps with covers shaped like megaphones made with transparent glass were hung in a tidy row. Behind the counters are the necessary kitchen stuffs – sink, stove, microwave and refrigerator. The wall where Dante used to display his old guns is now replaced with pans and spatulas. Dante was quite happy with the kitchen installment, which he got for free from Patty's mother who worked as an interior designer.

Lady was sitting on the kitchen bar table reading a woman's magazine while Trish was brewing a cup of coffee with a coffee maker that he got for free from his usual diner – a congratulation gift from the owner because now he got a daughter, he reckon that he'll have to pull an all-nighter quite often and the coffee maker might help. Nonetheless, Dante still appreciated the gift. Trish was wearing white short-sleeved pajamas while Lady wears baby blue tank-top and shorts, indicating that they're ready to sleep. Dante himself was wearing black long-sleeved turtle neck and a pair of grey jogging slacks. He approached them, and Trish shoved a cup of coffee to him.

"Here," she said "You must be tired after taking care of her"

Dante grabbed the cup and sat along next to Lady "Thanks," he replied "To tell you the truth, being a father is more exhausting than what I thought"

"One thing makes me curious, Dante" Lady suddenly added. She glanced up from the magazine she read and looked towards him "How come you're being surprisingly gentle towards Angel?"

"That's what I wanted to know too" Trish added, "I thought you're not the type who likes children"

Dante twitched an eyebrow "Really? Aren't I always gentle?"

The two ladies dropped their coffee cups on the bar table and stared at Dante with funny faces. "You've never been this gentle, Dante. Not even to Patty"

"The Dante I knew is a brutal, pig-headed, cocky and immature devil hunter"

"Hey! I'm not!"

Dante protested, but the ladies just sipped their coffees and ignored him. He scratched his head trying to figure out what is wrong, and the ladies laughed at him.


	8. Chapter 7: Social Workers

Early in the morning at Devil May Cry, Patty fixed breakfast in the kitchen with Morrison while Trish and Lady are busy dressing up Angel in her room. They woke her up, helped her bathe and Lady dressed her with a black tank-top and black and white striped skirt, along with black shoes and white stockings. The two ladies themselves weren't bad either – Lady wore her usual blazer, but this time with a black tank-top inside and long pants with the same color and pattern as her blazer, and black high heels. Trish herself wore a casual red dress with a matching colored pair of high heels.

After Lady was sure that Angel's appearance is neat and tidy enough to impress the social worker, Trish brushed her long silver hair gently and tied a black bow that contrasted beautifully with her hair color and somehow matches her clothes. After they're done, Angel signed 'Thank you' and the two ladies replied 'You're welcome' with sign language – they decided that if they're going to help their fellow demon hunter raising a mute daughter, they will have to learn sign language too.

"Now that you're a pretty princess, why don't you show it to daddy?" Lady suggested. Angel nodded, and dashed outside and ran down the stairs for her daddy

"Careful! You don't want to ruin your pretty dress!" Trish cried. But Angel seemed to ignore it and she kept running. She scanned towards the first floor of the shop, but she can't find Dante anywhere. She then tugged Morrison's pants and asked where Dante is.

"He's taking a shower, Angel-"

Before he managed to finish his sentence, Dante came out of his room dressed with a three-layered suit. He wore a black suit and pants, cream-colored vest with black stripes and red shirt with black tie, not forgetting his well-polished black formal shoes and his white hair combed.

The shop become silent, only the sizzling sound of sausage and eggs from the frying pan can be heard. Patty blushed, Morrison's eyes went wide, and the ladies on the top floor felt their heart skipped a beat. Everyone in the shop was speechless until Dante snickered…

"ACHOO!"

...And everyone burst out laughing.

"Nice suit, Dante! You never look this charming!" Trish complemented

"Thanks, Trish. Morrison gave this to me"

"You lend your suit to him?" Patty asked Morrison. But he shook his head

"No, it was my old suit back when I was young and I never use it again. So I reckon that it won't hurt if I give it to him"

"You should dress like this more often, Dante. It looks better than your usual style"

"Nah, I love my old usual style better- Oh hello there, baby Angel! You look so pretty this morning!"

She smiled, but before she can sign a 'Thank you' to her daddy, he already lifted her up in his arms and gave a kiss on her cheeks. Then the devil hunter brought her to the bar kitchen tabletop and sat her next to him so they can have breakfast together with the others.

A few hours after the breakfast, a white Honda SUV arrived in front of Devil May Cry. Angel was playing her dolls with Dante, Patty, Trish and Lady in front of the TV lounge when Morrison opened the door and the people assigned by the social services came in. The doctor from Santo Cielo – whose name is Claire, a stout middle-aged man wearing glasses with a professionally – combed hairstyle and dressed like a businessman – the social worker who is going to assess whether Dante is eligible to adopt Angel or not, and another blonde – haired woman who wear a pair of jeans, sneakers and a shirt with the American Sign Language Association logo – assumed to be the sign language interpreter. Dante then stood up from the sofa and greeted them.

"Hello Dr. Claire, long time no see." he shook the doctor's hands

"Long time no see too, Dante. Here, I'd like to introduce Mr. Jason Lee, the social worker who would assess you today, and Ellen, the sign language interpreter. I am here to check for her health condition, since I was the one who take care of her health for a long time"

After Dante greeted Ellen, he turned to greet the social worker "Nice to meet you, Mr. Lee" he offered his hand, but Mr. Lee just gave a glum face towards him and briefly replied "Nice to meet you too. Mr. Sparda".

Dante finally dropped his hands, and turned his head towards Trish and Lady, who were now walking towards them and greeted them. When Trish passed by him, she whispered "Remember, self-control, demon boy. You're doing good so far" and gave a tap on his back

He sighed and gave a slight smile, then turned his attention towards Angel – who is now sitting on the sofa with Patty. "Angel, come here!" he gestured with his hand telling his daughter to come closer to them. The little girl slid down the sofa and walked towards her father reluctantly, still hugging a teddy bear tightly in her arms. When she reached close enough, Dante pulled her softly towards the social workers and put his hands on top of her small shoulders "Alright baby, introduce yourself now to these guys, will you?"

She raised her right hand and signed 'Hello, my name is Angel Sparda. Nice to meet you' and of course he can see her doing it reluctantly. She's doing it surprisingly slow and she keep looking down to the floor – something that Angel never did, even when they met for the first time in Santo Cielo. Ellen told Mr. Lee what she said, and he gave a sly smile towards the little girl. But suddenly she ran and hid behind Dante's back and whimpered. Mr. Lee twitched his eyebrows, and Dante turned his head towards Angel. He can see that she's being nervous.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he stroked her daughter's head trying to calm her down, and picked her up into his arms to give him a warm hug and rocked her back and forth. He knew that it's the best way to calm his four-year-old daughter when she's being unhappy like now.

Ellen just chuckled "She seemed to be really attached to you, Mr. Sparda"

"It's only been a short while, but you both are really close" Dr. Claire added "I know you two would do great ever since I saw you carrying her home at Santo Cielo"

"I think not, Mr. Sparda"

Everyone turned their heads to the person who just spoken – Mr. Lee.

"What is it, Mr. Lee?" Dante asked as polite as possible. Somehow, this guy was being a jackass and trying to piss him off since he entered Devil May Cry.

"Pampering and spoiling your daughter too much is not good for her. She might grow up as a spoiled child. And she doesn't need to be carried too much – she has a good pair of legs for her to walk by herself. Anyways, we should better get started with the house tour, shall we?"

Dante turned away from Mr. Lee and clenched his teeth slightly. "Come on, Angel. You need to get down now" he put his daughter down and she frowned. Dante never did that, once he carried Angel he will never put her down until she asked him to. He then lead Mr. Lee upstairs to Angel's room, and then to the other parts of the house (except the weapon's room, of course) while Angel is left downstairs for health check with Dr. Claire and short interview by Ellen. The house tour went smoothly – even though Dante had to clench his teeth many times and his veins almost exploded because Mr. Lee always criticized everything and it seemed impossible to impress him – but just him. Meanwhile, Angel is doing great with Dr. Claire and Ellen. They asked simple basic questions about how is she doing, is she happy living in this house and how does everyone treat her. Ellen was made impressed by her usage of sign language. Even though it's only been less than a month, she already learned so many words and could use American Sign Language almost grammatically correct – which is impressive for a newbie, especially a little girl no more than four years old. After the tour, Angel was told to go play in her room while Dante, Lady, Trish, Morrison and Patty were all interviewed by Ellen and Mr. Lee. They were asked so many questions from personal life to their everyday life with Angel so far. Things went smoothly until Mr. Lee asked one question.

"Mr. Sparda, what is this room for?" Mr. Lee asked, pointing to the room with the electric security lock. Dante quickly turned towards Morrison, and he was also confused. He turned towards Lady, Patty and Trish, and they were also confused.

"It's uh… weapon's room, sir" he answered.

The three people's eyes went wide and the atmosphere in Devil May Cry suddenly turned quiet. Morrison just sighed, along with Trish, Patty and Lady.

Mr. Lee shifted his glasses position with his right hand forefinger.

"Come again? Weapon's room, you said?" he asked again for confirmation.

"It's a weapon's room. That's why it was locked with electric security lock. Only I and the adults know the combination… Patty didn't know. Even if the right combination is pressed, it still has to be confirmed with your fingerprint. That's why I'm sure it's safe from the reach of underage children and–"

"Allow me to ask one question, Mr. Sparda" Mr. Lee cut in "What is your profession? To be precise, what did you do for living?" he asked.

"I, uh… I'm a private detective. This place is also… my office. Morrison usually brought me jobs, and these two ladies are my assistants in my job, and Patty here is the one who keeps the office in order while we're gone… She also often came here to babysit Angel and she's supposed to be the one taking care of Angel when I have some jobs to do but since I took her in, I haven't taken any jobs at all and…"

"You are a private detective and you have your own room for weapons? How many weapons does a detective need?"

"It's my… uh, part of my hobby, sir. And all of the weapons are government – authorized with complete permit letters" – at least, part of them were. Except for his devil arms, most of his guns were legal, and for those that aren't, Morrison had faked the letters.

"Still, I find it hard to approve someone like you to take care of a four-year-old with a _disability_" he gave a pressured tone when he said the word disability. Dante hated how Angel's inability to talk is being mentioned as disability – it's as if it is a big burden of her in life, and she was mute for her own good sake. He felt really guilty for making her not being able to talk, but he had to. He didn't want to see his daughter in a state that she had been through back in the orphanage, and he wanted to protect his daughter's innocence.

Mr. Lee continued again "Men with weapons are proven to be violent, Mr. Sparda. Now I am sure, that the government wouldn't approve me leaving a _disabled_ little girl with a person like you, hmm? And there's another issue I'd like to bring…" he opened his suitcase and threw a huge stack of papers – which are bills and debt letters, all addressed to Mr. Dante Sparda.

"I believe these are all yours, Mr. Sparda"

The inhabitants of Devil May Cry sighed in defeat. Finally, Dante, finally… the day where your debts are bringing you trouble had come – they all thought.

"I'll pay all of them"

All the stares turned towards Lady. They couldn't believe what she just said.

"Excuse me, miss?" Mr. Lee shifted his glasses again

"I said, I'll pay all of them" she walked forward and produced a small book with a local bank's logo on the front. She showed the final page where it was half-filled and showing that the money stored in her account was a hell lot – reaching to a few hundred thousand dollars "I think this is more than enough to pay for everything" she said.

This makes everyone shocked. Lady, that Lady who always took Dante's money whenever she came to Devil May Cry, now saying that she's going to pay all of his debts? Surely pigs would start to fly any minute now.

Mr. Lee craned his neck cheekily "What's this, paying a best friend's debt? How nice of a friend you are, Miss Lady"

"No… actually, I uh, kept his money in the bank. All of the money in my account… are all his. It's for uh, emergencies."

This time, everyone was more than shocked. Dante is THAT rich? Even Dante himself couldn't believe it – he actually got a lot of money! Now he thinks he's either just a lucky bastard or the bloodline of Sparda makes him lucky – he always managed to run away from his debts, even in this some kind of life and death situation.

"Ho! So you need a friend to keep your money for you. Doesn't this indicate that you're not a responsible man, Mr. Sparda? How can you raise a child when-"Mr. Lee was about to spoke again when suddenly there was a huge explosion heard from outside. They can feel the shop shaking, and the hanging glass lamps they just installed yesterday on top of the kitchen bar area were swinging and hitting each other.

"An earthquake?" Dr. Claire asked.

"...No…." Trish said in a faded voice

Dante sighed. "Demons… they're coming closer."


	9. Chapter 8: Demons

Everybody stared at him with intense. He walked towards the weapon's room and punched the code and swiped his fingerprint, then after a beeping sound, he opened the door.

'Trish, go fetch Angel upstairs just in case they're going through the top window and guard everybody inside. Make sure everyone stays together on the downstairs area. Lady, you go outside with me and watch the door. Make sure nothing enters the shop"

Dante then disappeared into the room, Trish ran to the second floor and Lady stood in front of the door, ready to come out anytime. She remained calm despite the building keep shaking for every few seconds.

"Excuse me, what's going on?" Dr. Claire asked.

Lady turned her head towards her "Oh, nothing. Just another demon attack… it's been a long time since we get one around here. Anyways, please stay inside the building for your own safety" she said calmly.

"What are you guys going to do?" Ellen asked

"Do our job – we kill them"

"I thought Mr. Sparda said that you guys were detectives?" Mr. Lee asked

"Yes we are, but we're a different kind of detectives. Devil hunters, to be exact"

Trish finally brought Angel down, and she was asking 'what's going on?' apparently, Trish didn't understand enough sign language so she asked Ellen instead. Ellen tried to explain the best she could, and she just nodded obediently.

'Is it like the one in The Legend of Sparda book?'

Ellen twitched and eyebrow and she was confused, then turned to Lady

"Miss Lady, she's asking whether this situation is the same as The Legend of Sparda book or not"

Lady turned her body towards Angel and nodded. She knelt down so that she won't be too tall from Angel and talked to her gently

"Yes, darling. Your daddy and I are now going to fight with the demons outside, just like what The Legendary Dark Knight Sparda did. Now you stay inside with Auntie Trish and be a good girl, okay?"

Angel nodded, and Lady stroked her hair and kissed her forehead gently. Just after that, Dante finally came out of the weapon's room with a lot of weapons on his hands.

"All right, civilians. Bob your head down!"

First he threw Luce & Ombra to Trish, then a pair of Berettas to Lady, her special belt to store clips, and followed with her Kalina Ann. The remaining two – Ebony and Ivory, are pushed inside his left and right pockets. He then snapped his fingers and Rebellion came spinning towards him and landed on his hand. He walked straight towards the door dragging Rebellion, and Mr. Lee, Dr. Claire and Ellen moved out of the way without being told. When he reached the door, he kneeled down in front of his daughter and kissed her forehead, smiled and pushed her gently towards Trish. "Be a good girl, Angel. Come on, Lady. Let's rock!"

He kicked the door open (without making it broken like usual) and a huge wind suddenly blowing into the shop, revealing a pack of demons similar to what he had encountered back in Fortuna Castle – but they are all fire element types, and their footsteps are so heavy that everytime one of them landed on the ground, the ground shook and creates an earthquake. Debt papers flew away from Mr. Lee's suitcase and out of the shop and the glass lamp were knocking at each other, creating clink - clonk sounds like wind chimes. Mr. Lee was about to chase the papers, but stopped at the sight of a pack of demons in front of the store.

"Fire types... just as I expected" he muttered. "Lady, you watch the door. Back me up with your Kalina Ann, okay?"

He bit his sword in his mouth and dashed towards the pack of demons, while Lady held her Kalina Ann up and starts shooting them from afar. When he reached close enough, he jumped up high and started shooting a rain of bullets towards them, and when he finally landed on one of their heads, he pushed the guns back to his pockets, grabbed Rebellion's grip by hand, released his bite and started bashing them down with an incredible speed. Within ten minutes, he finished beating down all the demons and left them dead on the ground. When he dropped the edge of his sword on the ground, the demons started to disappear and turned into ash. Lady dropped her Kalina Ann, and the two was about to go back to the shop. Lady opened the door wide, they were about to enter when suddenly a demon jumped up and almost hit them when Dante pulled out Ivory and shoot the demon. The demon then instantly turned into ash, and Dante walked in with Lady and closed the door without even looking back.

Back inside Devil May Cry, Angel ran to her father and was about to hug him when Mr. Lee suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him.

"I'm truly sorry, Mr. Dante Sparda. But you didn't fit our standards to have her. Ellen, Dr. Claire, I believe that we have spent quite a long time in here and must leave now. Shall we?" he grabbed his suitcase from the desk and walked towards the door, dragging Angel with him.

"Mr. Lee, I can explain-"

"I don't want to hear anything from you, Mr. Sparda. This innocent child does not belong here in this place, and she does not deserve to have a father like you! I don't care whether you're the biological father or not, but I cannot approve you to have the custody of her! Your living environment and your job is too dangerous to raise a child! Now please excuse us, we have to leave. Come on, Angel"

He pulled Angel's hand, and she started to cry. She signed 'I don't want to go!' many times, and Ellen had warned Mr. Lee. But he kept dragging her to the car. Dante clenched his teeth hard, wanting to get her off that filthy scumbag's hand and hug her so bad right now, but he couldn't do anything – he can just watch her being dragged out of Devil May Cry with tears on her eyes…

"Angel? What is it? Come on! We have to hurry!" Mr. Lee said.

After Mr. Lee opened the door, Angel suddenly stopped walking. She did not follow Mr. Lee, yet did not try to run to her father. She just stopped. Mr. Lee was about to drag her when she suddenly grabbed the social worker's hand…

BAM!

They couldn't believe their eyes. A little girl no more than four with a tiny body for her age, thrown a middle-aged man around five or six times her size ten meters away from the entrance door of Devil May Cry. Angel threw Mr. Lee out of the shop with a hard bump on the street, and he passed out. She then turned back towards everyone, revealing a bright pair of shining red eyes and her teeth that had become fangs. But soon the bright red shine disappeared from her eyes and she fell on the floor.

Angel was bed-ridden for almost a week. She had become unconscious for the first three days, and Dr. Claire said that her voice-box was bleeding for unknown reasons, and the pain can be unbearable – only Dante, Trish, Lady and Morrison knew why, she had used some of her devil powers to throw that social worker guy to the street and the devil power seal reacted. Luckily, there are no more demons nearby the area during the time Angel unleashed her powers a little or they can get attracted to her and the devil hunters will have to do some more fighting. During the time she was resting in her bedroom, Dante was busy on the lower part of Devil May Cry filling in and signing enormous stack of papers to get Angel's legal custody. Apparently, Ellen had contacted the government's social department about the incident and luckily Dante managed to contact one of his old clients who worked there and are familiar with demons and seek for help. A few days later, he got a call from the social department that his request of getting his daughter's custody is approved and he had to fill in several more papers to finalize his decision. By the next Monday, he came home from the social department office with a new birth certificate, with the name _Angel Sparda_ written on the name column and the name _Mr. Dante Sparda _on the father's name column. He frowned a little when he saw the name of mother's column was empty, but he doesn't have any plans to make it filled in anytime sooner. Besides, he's got more things to do rather than looking for a woman to settle down – one of them is learning on how to be a proper father. The money that was kept by Lady was all used to clear all his debts, and the leftover was still kept in her account – even though she decided that she's going to give it all to Angel, she knew better not to give it to the father himself because he will spend it unwisely and soon will start piling up debts again and if the social workers find out, he can lose his daughter's custody again.

And he didn't know that raising a mute little girl and going through fatherhood can be more troublesome than killing annoying demons like Agni and Rudra.


	10. Chapter 9: A Typical Day: Laundry

It's been three months since Angel and Dante lived together. Angel is a fast-learning child and she adapts to things quickly and they've been great together even though she's been getting more and more mischievous and active despite of her muteness, but it's difficult with the devil hunter. Even though everyone had agreed to help him, they have other things to do. Trish, Lady and Morrison have their own jobs, and Patty have school. So most of it had to be done by himself.

His day started as early as four in the morning, where he was awakened by a very annoying alarm sound from his Sony Ericsson – which was set up by Trish and he was threatened that they will kill him if he dares to change it. He then lazily kicked his blanket off the bed and forced himself to get up, took off his phone charger from the electric socket and turned off the annoying alarm sound. Trish knew him very well – once he was awaken by something annoying, it's hard for him to go to sleep again. So he went out of his room and walked to the bathroom next door between his room and Angel's bedroom, still in his sleeping attire – a grey trainer pants and nothing else. Yawning and scratching his head, he turned on the tap, washed his face, brushed his teeth and used the toilet. After he flushed the toilet and pulled his pants up, he grabbed the laundry basket that he put between the sink and the toilet bowl, and grabbed all the dirty laundries inside – Angel's pink underwear with a small white ribbon on the middle top of it, his black shirt, a small black t-shirt with block letters in white that reads "DADDY'S #1 PRINCESS", his red leather overcoat, a large pair of boxers, a pair of black leather pants, Angel's white hoodie with skulls pattern all over, and a pair of short white pants. His hand are full of dirty clothes and he wanted to kick the door so badly, but remembering that Angel is asleep at the room next to the bathroom, he pushed the door handle down gently with one of his foot and pushed through the door with his body, and walked backwards to close the bathroom door again. He then walked down the stairs and managed not to drop a single piece of clothing, and made his way to the washing room at the back – only to find some clothes piling up at the laundry basket next to the washing machine. Oh, how he hoped that those were clean clothes that he had washed yesterday, but those were not. They were piles of dirty clothes that were abandoned since three days ago, and he knew that the girls will kill him if they found out that he's been piling up dirty laundries again for more than two days. He was busy taking jobs the whole week – even the ones without password, because Angel is so far the most expensive little chick that he had spent on even though she's only four. Sometimes he wondered when she turned into a teenager and he knew very well that teenagers cost a hell lot of money – and a hell lot of patience.

Sighing, he opened the washing machine lid and dumped all the clothes in – remembering to separate them by color first of course (he had to dump away his favorite white t-shirt and Angel's pink tank top a week ago because he ignored Patty's advice to separate them and the colors got mixed) and after that he added detergent and closed the lid, turned on the washing machine and grabbed a new issue of Playboy magazine from his desk that he just bought yesterday from the convenient store on the way home after work. He sat on top of the cupboard where he stored various tools, detergents and other cleaning materials, waiting for the washing machine to finish doing its washing job while reading the magazine and hummed to the tune of Eyeshine's Sunday Flower until he heard a weird chugging voice from the washing machine. He set his magazine down and approached the washing machine, making sure that he didn't misheard the washing machine making weird sounds – and yes, he didn't misheard anything at all. When he looked through the round window of the washing machine, he saw that the spinning motion of the machine went slower and slower while still making weird chugging sounds. He grunted and kicked the washing machine hard and it spun faster again. He snickered, but the victory smile on his face soon disappeared when he heard a buzzing sound and the machine completely stopped. He kicked it again a few times, but it won't budge. Instead, black smokes came out from behind the machine.

"SHIT!" He hit the machine with his hand and sighed. He turned his head to the wooden floor while still holding the washing machine lid, thinking of what he should do. If the ladies or Morrison came and saw that he had been piling up dirty laundries again, they'll kill him with their lectures of course. He sighed again, grabbed a big blue bucket from the edge of the washing room and pushed it to the washing machine, opened the lid, dug into the washing machine and dumped the wet and soapy clothes to the bucket, and dragged it to another edge of the room where he got a stool, water tap, a washing board and several more buckets. After that, he dragged another bucket with clothes that he haven't put into the washing machine next to the bucket he dragged before, filled an empty bucket with water, reached out for the box of detergent and poured some into the bucket he's currently filled in. He then stood up, walked towards the cupboard and grabbed a scrubber and returned back to the unfinished laundry. He grabbed a random piece of clothing from the bucket that was filled with clothes that are already soaked wet from the washing machine – which turned out to be his black shirt – and sat on the stool. He turned off the water tap, and started scrubbing the clothes manually on the washing board.

It didn't take him more than five minutes to make his eyes started to turn red and water flow down his cheeks and nose, not to mention that he also kept sneezing. If someone saw him in the state he is right now he or she might think that he's crying, but Dante isn't – his eyes turned red and water like tears because of the soap bubbles. His eyes were always sensitive to detergent and bubbles, that's why he hated washing clothes. He was grateful that he found a working washing machine in the dumpster nearby a month ago, but now he knows why the previous owner dumped the machine away – it's old and busted and he knew that it's way too broken to be fixed again. He make a reminder for himself that the first thing he will do when he sees Lady the next time he'll see her is to request for money to buy a new washing machine. The washing chore had never been this difficult – his eyes are very itchy and wet, and he can only scrub it with an edge of his wet hand which started to get wet and slippery because he keep rubbing off his teary eyes with it.

_Dang, this isn't devil may cry anymore. This is devil WILL cry. I can't stand doing this every day! Crap, Lady better make a visit soon so I can say goodbye to scrubbing clothes! _Dante thought. After he rinsed the last shirt on the bucket and scrunch it to make the water pour down, he put it on one of the buckets filled with soaked clothes and pulled them to the backyard door, kicked it open, grabbed a box of cheap plastic clothes peg from the cupboard and stuffed the contain in his pocket, put the box back to the cupboard and dragged the buckets out to the backyard. The sun wasn't up yet – since it's probably only 5 AM in the morning. The cold morning wind is blowing hard and Dante kept sneezing. He wished that he brought a hoodie or any kind of warm jacket to wear, but he's too lazy to grab one of them in his room and he decided to make this clothes hanging business quick. He started to grab clothes from the bucket one by one, spread them wide a few times to make the remaining water go away, and pin them on the clothes hanger with the clothes peg. He flinched every time the cold water dripping from the wet clothes touches his bare chest, not to mention that he's extremely sleepy and wished he could go back under the covers for a few hours before Angel woke up around 8 or 9 AM and he had to cook breakfast for two. He lost count on how many times he had yawned this morning and his whole body aches. Even though the cool wind had soothed the itchy pain on his eyes, it doesn't make his sleepiness gone. He had a rough mission last night, and he wished he could have a long rest.

As he grabbed one of his white boxers with heart pattern to hang it to dry, he yawned again and the boxers slipped from his hands. He was about to pick it up when suddenly a strong wind blows and his boxers were flipped away by the wind.

"Oh shit… WAAAAAAAAIT!" he yelped. He quickly dashed to grab it back, but the wind blow it away over his backyard fence. He jumped over the fence, still chasing his boxers, passed a few neighbor backyards and knocked down god-how-many flowerpots. The wind finally stopped, and the boxers landed on top of one of a neighbor's bush. He sighed in relief and was about to pick it up when suddenly he heard a familiar growl. He turned his head to the side, and found a ferocious adult poodle growling at him.

"Oh fuck… I. Frickin'. Hate. Poodles"

The poodle growled at him and barked loudly, and Dante flinched. He whimpered, and took a few steps backward while pulling his boxers from the top of the bush, and when the poodle ran forward towards him, he quickly pulled his boxers and dashed to the side. The poodle was continuously barking really loud and it's getting more and more ferocious, gnarling and showing its teeth that seem scarier than demons' fangs. Panicking, he climbed over the flowerpot rack and jumped over the fence, landing directly on the street. He sure heard terracotta pots shattering on the ground and he was sure with all the racket he created, the particular neighbor who owned the crazy poodle would be awake and surely will go out to his or her backyard soon. He was about to escape as quickly as possible when the poodle jumped over the fence and started to chase him.

"!"

He shrieked and ran like crazy. He didn't care whether he'll wake up the whole neighborhood and they all see him screaming like a girl and being chased by a poodle – he hates poodles and he had to get away from this crazy poodle that chase him only because he wanted to get his pair of boxers. He ran like no tomorrow until he saw a glance of his home, and was about to get into the building when he suddenly tripped over on the asphalt ground. When he was about to get up, the poodle was too close to get away and approached him with incredible speed and its mouth open, ready to bite him.

"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU CRAZY WHITE FLUFFY BITCH!"

He kicked the poodle hard and the dog flew across the street a couple of meters away. He can hear from the distance the whimper of the poodle, and Dante quickly stood up and ran towards the entrance door of Devil May Cry. But the door was locked, so he ran to the backyard fence and jumped back into his own backyard. He then walked a few steps forward towards the clothesline and dropped himself on the ground, panting and exhausted, cold sweat dripping all over his body. He rolled and lay on his back, laying on the grass and watched the morning sun. Spreading his hands and legs as far as possible, he realized that all this time he was holding his heart pattern boxers that lead him to the morning chaos. He spread them out with both of his hands only to see a big hole on the boxers. Now that he saw it, he recalled hearing a sound of fabric torn when he pulled the boxers from the bush and ran away from that crazy poodle. He groaned and dropped himself on the ground again, then rolled up and continued hanging his laundry. He decided to hang the boxers too and promised himself to somehow patch up that hole even though he knew that he have zero talents for sewing.

"Nasty little fluffy bitch poodle" he muttered.

After he finally finished hanging all his clothes, he dragged himself back inside, closed the backyard door with a loud bang and dropped himself on the couch. He closed his eyes and thanked god for the comfort that he can finally enjoy… Until fifteen minutes later.


	11. Chapter 10: A Typical Day: Angel

It wasn't too long before the devil hunter's sleep was disturbed by a soft tap on his abs. He can barely open his eyes, and he assumed that it's probably Lady or Trish waking him up early for work.

"Go away, woman. I want to sleep" he mumbled without even opening his eyes, and rolled to the side and continued sleeping.

But it didn't stop – someone kept tapping his body and he gets annoyed with it. He finally decided to wake up and rolled over.

"Fine, fine! I'm up! I'm up!"

He quickly got up and opened his eyes widely – only to see that it was his daughter, still in her blue pajamas and her favorite bunny plush Snow clutched on one of her hands.

"Oh, it's you baby Angel. Good morning. Come on, give daddy a morning hug" he smiled and Angel quickly hugged him and she got a kiss on her forehead. He stroked her head and asked "What do you want, baby? Why did you wake me up so early this morning?" he asked gently. Angel signed "I'm hungry". He sighed kissed her forehead again

"Alright, let's get some breakfast, okay?" he set her down, then walked towards the kitchen bar area and opened the fridge. He took three eggs out and some pack of frozen meat, kicked the fridge door to close and put them on an empty area between the stove and the sink. Meanwhile, Angel climbed one of the kitchen bar chair and watched her daddy prepare breakfast, still hugging Snow. As the meat sizzled on the fry pan, a soft clink-clink sound was heard from outside the door. He opened the fridge and grabbed two empty milk bottles, and set them in front of Angel.

"Baby, would you please do me a favor and put these carefully on the porch? Oh, and grab the ones that was delivered by the milkman just a few moments ago and put them in the fridge, okay?"

She nodded, put Snow carefully on one of the kitchen bar chairs and grabbed the two milk bottles. She tottered to the entrance door and when she reached the front door set the bottles down on the side, opened the door, and put the bottles outside. It turned out that the milkman was still outside the door, and he smiled to her and say "Good morning". She just smiled her best and nodded – Angel was told by Morrison that common people won't understand sign language, so she had to use her gesture to reply greets and questions to other people when she couldn't use paper and pen. The milkman then took the empty bottles away and Angel grabbed the bottles that were just delivered and brought them inside "Careful there!" the milkman said. She turned to him and nodded again, then entered the shop and carefully closed the door. The bottles were quite heavy, and she tottered carefully towards the fridge. She finally managed to put them inside the fridge as she was told to do by her father, and after she's done she climbed back to the kitchen table to see what is served for breakfast – a plate filled with bacon, eggs and sausages and a pink children's fork. Next to her was a plate with similar food on it – only in a way bigger portion and with big, silver fork. She knew that the big one is her daddy's, and the small one is hers. Without hesitation, she grabbed her pink fork and started to eat. After Dante poured two glass of milk and serve them, he sat down next to Angel and began his breakfast too. He felt that the atmosphere is too quiet, so he turned on his jukebox with a remote control and picked DEPAPEPE's Summer Parade album tracks to accompany their breakfast this morning.

After the breakfast is done, he somehow managed to wash the dishes without breaking anything – even though he realized that the plates and glass slipped from his hand quite many times and landed with a hard CLANK on the bottom of the sink. He stacked them neatly on the dishes rack without even bothering to wipe them to dry, and dragged his foot to the sofa and dropped himself again.

"Baby Angel, go upstairs, clean yourself and get dressed, okay? Then you can play with your toys until I wake up" he said loudly without opening his eyes again. After hearing the soft tap-tap voice of small feet fading away and climbing up the wooden spiral staircase, he drifted into deep sleep.

…

"OHHOLYMOTHERFUCKER!" he screamed and got up quickly from the sofa. He was awakened by the annoying jingle from his office phone. Realizing that it was only his annoying office phone, he sighed and stood up from the sofa. He looked around and see that Angel is nowhere on the downstairs area – which relieved him because Lady, Morrison and Trish had warned him many times to watch his language when he's around his daughter. Dante walked towards his desk, still scratching his desk and yawning, and lazily picked up the phone

"_Yaaawwwn~_ D'vl Meh Cry. 'Ow can I 'elp?" he greeted the caller sleepily. But after a few words, his eyes opened wide in alarm and he silenced. _Customer with a password_, he thought. "Alright, I'll be there in fifteen minutes"

He put the phone back to the cradle and quickly rushed to his bedroom. He grabbed his Sony Ericsson from the top of his messy bed, flipped it open and texted Morrison

_Hv a password custmr, come quick. N tell lady tht I need cash to buy nw washin machine ASAP. Thx._

He then closed his phone and threw it away to the bed again, pulled off his pants and opened his wardrobe. He dug into the pile of clothes and quickly pulled a pair of fresh boxers, and his usual work attires – black shirt, belts, leather pants and his signature red leather coat. He also pulled a fresh pair of socks from one of the drawers. After putting all of them quickly, he dashed to the toilet and sprayed some of his Hugo Boss perfume, then went to Angel's bedroom to see her. She flinched a bit when she heard the door opened so loud all of a sudden and was relieved to see that it was her father. She was playing with her Lego blocks when Dante barged into her room – and already dressed neatly as what she was told to do before her father fell asleep on the couch. Today she was dressed in black long-sleeved hoodie with red Gears of War logo in the middle and a pair of grey parachute pants and despite of dressing up like a boy, she still look adorable.

'What is it, daddy?' she signed.

"Oh- um, I'm going to go to work now. Morrison is coming soon, so be a good girl ok? I'll be back as soon as I'm finished"

She nodded and showed her usual adorable smile, and gave Dante a hug. When she finally let go, they heard the sound of the main door of the shop open.

"Hey Dante, I'm here!" Morrison said in a loud voice from below. "Alright, Morrison's here. Let's go downstairs and greet him, okay?"

They both stood up and she held his hand, and led by him they both made their way downstairs.

"Oh hello there, good morning Angel!" Morrison greeted. Angel replied his greet with sign language as usual and they talked a little, while Dante rushed to the weapon's room immediately. He punched the code and swiped his fingerprint, and after the code confirmation sound rings from the security lock machine, he opened the door quickly and went inside to gather the weapons that he's going to bring for today's mission. By the time he came out of the room and closed the door, Angel and Morrison already sat on Dante's desk with scrap papers, pencil, eraser and a book about basic numbers. Before he sprinted out of the shop, he stopped by his daughter to say goodbye.

"So, baby, today you're learning how to count with Morrison?"

She nodded happily and showed a big grin on her face. Dante can't help but smile proudly. "Alright, be good with Morrison and study well, okay? Daddy's off to work now! See ya!" he kissed both of his daughter's cheeks and messed up her hair, then he ran outside with Rebellion sheathed on his back and Ebony and Ivory sticking out of his left and right pockets of his black leather pants. After a few steps, they can hear the smooth engine sound of AC Cobra being revved up, and a sound of car screeching and the sound dissolving, indicating that Dante is in his car and on his way to his mission-

BANG!

The two glanced up from the desk and looked at each other, and they both decided to dash out of the shop, only to see Dante crashing his AC Cobra to a garbage can a few yards from the shop.

"Hey Dante, are you okay?" Morrison cried from the shop. Dante just laughed and waved at his friend and his daughter, indicating that his fine.

"Yeah pal, I'm alright! I just didn't watch where I'm going! Catch ya later Morrison, I'm running late!"

He drove backwards to get his car away from the garbage can and drove away. Angel just looked towards Morrison with a twitch on one of her eyebrows and asked 'What's wrong with daddy?' Morrison just returned her stare with the same confused face and replied "Don't look at me, young lady. I don't know what's got into your father" after a few moments of staring at each other with confused face, they decided to go back into Devil May Cry and continue learning numbers.

It was a regular activity when Dante had to go on missions early in the morning, he will dial or simply text Morrison who lived three minutes away from Devil May Cry and called him to watch for Angel until Patty came home from school. Morrison usually came to the shop bringing books for the little girl – storybooks, encyclopedias, or textbooks for study. He used to be a teacher before he retired and become a mercenary agent. Since Dante obviously can't afford special school for the disabled, Morrison decided to contribute by being a home school teacher for the devil hunter's daughter to prevent him being accused by social worker for not getting Angel proper education. Besides, being a mercenary agent isn't that busy – especially in daytime. He got too much free time to spare, and there's a little girl that needs his help as a teacher. That's why he decided to teach Angel every day until Patty came home from school and visit Devil May Cry – from 3 PM to 7, it's Patty's job to take care of her and to check whether the shop is clean enough or not.

Today, Morrison decided to teach Angel about numbers. By the time Patty comes to Devil May Cry, she can already count and do simple additions and subtractions. The two girls then said goodbye to Morrison and usually after that she served some dessert from ingredients available in the fridge – which is also another way for her to check the food supplies. When she felt that the food stock is limited, she and Angel will go out to the grocery store and use the special credit card given by Lady to shop for food and other necessities – such as shampoo, detergent, floor cleaners, etc. After they were done shopping, they will usually stop at the food parlor and grab something to eat – from chocolate cakes to blueberry crepes. But still, Angel's favorites are pizzas and strawberry sundaes. She is Dante's daughter after all.

Patty treated her like a little sister. Spending her childhood in an orphanage and never knowing about her parents' whereabouts until she turned twelve, she felt sympathetic towards the demon-blooded girl. That's why when Dante asked them to help him raise Angel, she said yes without hesitation.

Patty usually let her play in the park for a few hours so she could get a chance to play with children her age. In this hour before the sun sets, children around the neighborhood are usually gathering at the park and play together. At first, it was difficult to make friends for her. She couldn't speak, and she's white-haired like their grannies. Some children bullied her due to those two traits she had, but after she sacked a 6th grader bully (without demonic powers) the others started to become close with her. Of course after that incident both Angel and Patty got some lectures from Dante – Angel was told to have self-control, and Patty was told to watch his daughter better and not to let her into fights, but since that, she is never alone again in the playground in the afternoons. To solve the communication problems, Patty gave her a Blue's Clues notepad and a pencil so she can write what she wanted to say to other children.

Although not every day like Patty and Morrison, Lady and Trish, or either one of them, would make a visit to Devil May Cry. Usually they would come after 6 o'clock, sometimes earlier, depending on their jobs. They would pick her and Patty up from the park – sometimes with a motorcycle, and took them to an expensive diner or just go home instead. There were quite a few times when the ladies took the two young girls to the shopping district and went out shopping together. Angel didn't have a mom, so they reckon that she rarely have feminine touch at home (seeing how her father is). Dante never minded when his two ladies friend took his little girl out for shopping, because he do realize that no matter how boyish she is, she's still a girl and he wanted her to at least be a little girlish.

But today, it was another of those typical days when Lady and Trish were out of town, and Dante had texted Patty earlier that he would be very late, so she doesn't have to wait for him to come home. Because Angel had been such a good girl, Patty took her to the diner where Dante usually took them for and treats her with pizza and strawberry sundae for dinner. Then she took her home, and after saying goodbye to Angel, she headed home.

It wasn't the first time when Angel was left alone in Devil May Cry. Everyone was too busy to watch for her and Dante is still away for his missions. After the last time she released her power with the social worker, Dante and Trish are now sure that her demonic traits are dormant and won't attract demons for quite a long time. But still, back when she threw that social worker her demonic powers was activated due to her emotion – which is why they were grateful that Morrison leaves nearby. Like any other parent with normal children and normal lives, when they leave an underage child alone to guard the house, they teach the child a few necessities to keep them safe. Dante decided to give her a Hello Kitty cellphone - her fingers were once stuck on the classic phone that he had on his desk when he taught her how to use the phone, and in emergencies, phones play a big role. At first, he considered giving her an LG Migo phone that is specially designed for children. But she cannot talk, and the phone does not have text message functions so they decided to give her a real phone that is actually too early for her to use.

She fiddled with her Hello Kitty cellphone while sitting on top of the kitchen bar table but soon got bored with it, and turned her attention towards the fridge, where everyone stuck a lot of notes on it. A big A4-sized paper was stuck on the lower fridge door written in Patty's neat block letters with lots of colors and decorations that says:

Rules for Angel

not play with stoves and fire. Text the diner's owner to deliver food for you if you're hungry and there's nobody to cook for you

not make the house messy and return toys and books to your room after you're done playing

not click on weapon's room door lock or try to open it

demons are nearby, lock all doors and text daddy, Trish or Lady. Hide in the underground storage until someone helps you out

the shop phone rings, answer and click the redirect button to pass the call to daddy's phone

keep the doors locked when you're alone at home and never open the door for strangers and demons.

not go out of the house by yourself

Soon she started to get bored again, so she decided to jump down from the kitchen bar table and decided to watch TV until her father gets home. It wasn't long until it started to rain…


	12. Chapter 11: A Typical Day: Dozing Off

A FEW HOURS EARLIER

Dante was actually done with his job at around 4:30 PM that afternoon – and he started at around 7 AM this morning. This time, he was asked to kill demons that inhabit an old abandoned building at the edge of the city. The job was requested by a real estate agency because they've found a buyer for the old building. Unfortunate for Dante, the building was really huge – not to mention confusing. He reckoned that it only took him three hours to kill all the demons, and the rest was used to find the way around the place. When he finally managed to find the exit and stepped out of the building and saw the sky and the sun, he thanked god and quickly approached the real estate agency guy who hired him, took his pay and drove away. Midways of the road, he stopped because he felt way too sleepy to even remember the way home – which, if correct, he recalled that it took about half an hour from Devil May Cry to get in here. He glanced towards his AC Cobra that soon need to go to the car specialist and get its blaring red color repainted again because of the uncountable scratches it got from Dante's reckless driving this morning. Luckily he didn't encounter any police officers – they could just arrest him for drunk driving even though he's not reeking of alcohol. He then decided to park in a local park's parking lot nearby to get some sleep before driving home. After sending a text message to Patty that he will be home a bit late, he put his phone away in his pocket, pushed his seat down and leaned back in his car, ready to drift off to sleep. He was about to close his eyes when suddenly he saw a woman walking around the park together with two identical boys that is obviously her sons. His eyes suddenly became sore, and he looked away to the sky and leaned down on the driver's chair. A sunny day, children's laughs and the sound of wind and rustling winds makes him remember a day in spring, back when he was still a little innocent boy…

…_It was one beautiful day in spring. Seeing that the weather had turned warm and all the winter snow are all gone, Eva decided to have a picnic in the woods behind the Sparda Mansion with her twin sons Dante and Vergil. The two boys were more than excited, of course. They love the woods behind the Sparda Mansion – no matter winter or snow. The woods have become their playground. Eva loved it so much in spring, saying that it makes her remember the romantic times she spent with Sparda (and the boys got disgusted), that's why she often brought the boys to the woods in spring days for a picnic. While Eva brought a picnic basket and the big classic red-squared pattern cloth for everyone to sit on, the brothers brought their favorite toys: their wooden sword. Along the way they chase each other and laughed. After Eva picked a spot below the tree, she spread the cloth and grabbed a book to read. Dante and Vergil would run a bit far (but not too far – as what their mother warned) and spar all day – only approaching their mother when called for lunch, someone get hurt, or when someone cheated (or claimed that their twin brother cheated). Dante remembered that he always loses because he's the younger twin, and his brother is very strong – and Vergil always cheated. When Vergil went too hard on him, he'll run to Eva with teary eyes, and the human mother would comfort the younger twin. Vergil would soon cry too because he's jealous and Eva offered him a hug too, and then the two would snuggle in their mother's arms and fell asleep under the beautiful spring weather…._

Dante was awakened when he felt that his cheeks were wet. He yawned and stretched, looking around and saw that the sun had almost disappeared and the local park are already empty. He didn't remember how many hours he passed out in his car. He thought he was crying in his sleep when he felt that his eyes were dry, only his cheeks were wet. He soon realized that water drops started to fell from the sky, and it began to get harder and harder. Feeling that it soon might rain, he pulled the convertible top and barely made it when the drizzle turned into heavy rain. He sighed in relief and laid his head on top of the steering wheel when he suddenly remembered one thing he missed…

_LAUNDRY! _

He quickly started the engine and drove as fast as he could in the heavy rain through the slippery streets of the city. He reckoned that Patty had gone home by this hour, and there will be nobody to pick the laundry – they were hung quite high and might be hard for Angel to pick them up, and she was always taught by Trish that she had to stay home on a rainy day or she might get sick. Along the way, the rain was getting harder and the wind is blowing really hard. He saw some trees falling down in the middle of the road and blocks his way home – which means that he have to make a very long turn to reach Devil May Cry. He is now sure that tomorrow morning he'll gonna have to scamper through the whole neighborhood to gather his laundry – and possibly meeting that crazy poodle again.

After he parked his car in the garage, he quickly went into Devil May Cry through the washing room that connected with the garage. He was about to run into the backyard and grab all his laundry when he saw a pile of dirty, wet, and muddy pile of clothes in the middle of the washing room. He almost had a heart attack when Angel suddenly appeared from beneath the clothes pile. 'Welcome home, daddy!' she signed to him

"Angel? What are you doing?"

She was soaked wet with mud and water and it won't stop dripping down from her body to the floor. Even though she was always warned by everyone not to make a mess in the shop, the little girl just showed a big, innocent smile and signed 'I picked the laundry up for you! It was raining hard, and I'm afraid that all of our clothes will be gone! I want to help daddy, so I pick them up by myself!'

Looking at the mess, he knew really well that he needs to wash everything all over again – including the clothes that they wear today. But Angel had gone through the harsh wind and rain outside – even fell into the mud just to help him. She knew that Trish would be really upset if she found out, but she ignored the warning anyways.

"Thank you, baby Angel! You're a lifesaver!" he wrapped her in a bear hug. She is truly a lifesaver – thanks to her, he won't have to deal with that neighbor's poodle tomorrow. He'd better deal with detergent soap and bubbles that burns his eyes rather than crazy poodles.


	13. Chapter 12: A Typical Day: Laundry Again

Seeing all the pile of laundry that he had to wash (including himself and his daughter), Dante decided to do everything in the bathroom. Helped by Angel, he moved all his clothes and washing materials to the bathroom upstairs. First, he took off his soaked clothes and helped Angel undress, then filled the bathtub with warm water. While waiting for the water to fill in, he grabbed the shower and washed himself and his daughter. First he started scrubbing Angel, then himself. Then he rinsed the bubbles off their bodies, and then he grabbed a bottle of Zwitsal children's shampoo. Seeing his father holding the familiar yellow shampoo bottle, she quickly went for the door, only to find it locked. Angel turned to her father, who is now smirking with an evil face and snickering.

"Come on, it's not that scary… it's just shampoo."

She banged on the bathroom door, a hopeless attempt to escape. Dante didn't care, and dragged her to his side. She flailed and whimpered, but her father is just too strong. He then sat down on the plastic stool, locking his daughter with his right arm and opening the children's shampoo with his left hand. He poured some of the clear yellow-colored liquid on his palm, and started to scrub her hair. She whimpered and flailed like crazy, as if Dante washed her hair with acid. For once, he thanked god she's mute, because all that she could do is whimper and flail. Had she had the ability to talk, she must be screaming on top of her lungs and he will have to deal with screams too. He gritted his teeth, because she is getting harder and harder to control. Thinking that her hair is already clean enough, he grabbed the shower and turned on the tap. Warm water started to spray from the shower, and he pulled it closer to his daughter

_Just a final spray, and then we're done. _

"Okay, close your eyes. I'm gonna spray your head"

He started to spray her head, and she stopped moving.

_Good. She's calming down…_

But he was wrong.

She started to flail again, and whimpered more. The shampoo bubbles make his grip more slippery and he had to hold her harder to prevent her from slipping away to the floor. He tried hard not to let her go until he saw some of the bubbles are red-colored and soon realized in shock that it was blood. At first, he thought that she was bleeding until he saw his own hands full of scratch.

"What the?"

He gripped her fingers and saw her long nails with bloodstains on the edge. She was scratching him. Of course, the scratches don't really matter to the devil hunter, because it will be gone in the next half an hour or so due to his demonic blood. He turned his attention to her, and saw her eyes full of tears and he can tell that she was really upset.

"Angel,"

He pointed to his hand that looked like a cat's scratching post with an unhappy face, and hit her head lightly. She winced and quickly stroked her head, gesturing that it hurts. But he just shook his head and sighed

"Bad girl."

He then held her up and dipped her into the tub, gave her a pair of rubber ducks, a plastic boat and a set of bathtub crayons. Then he wrapped a towel around his waist, dragged the bucket of dirty laundries that are piling up high near the stool, sat on the stool and started to wash them. While he was scrubbing his shirt to the washing board, Angel poked him from the bathtub. He turned back and smiled

"What is it?"

She pointed up and they both saw bubbles flying up in the bathroom. Dante scrubbed his shirt some more and more bubbles are appearing, which makes her more excited and now she's jumping around in the tub to catch the bubbles.

"Bubbles… they're pretty, right? Can you spell 'bubble'?"

She raised her hand and spelled "bubble" with sign language. He stroked her head and smiled, and then continued on washing the clothes. At first, she kept trying to catch the bubbles and her jumping makes the water from the tub tossed here and there. The water spilling keeps hitting Dante's back, sometimes little droplets of water squirting his face. He wanted to shout to her telling her to stop, but he decided to shut up when he remembered back when he was her age, he and Vergil was even more messy in the bathtub. Eva never blamed them despite they were making the whole bathroom as if it was just knocked down by a tsunami, not to mention that the two brothers were splashing and screaming during the bath. Luckily she got bored after a few minutes and sat back on the tub and goes back drawing with bathtub crayons all over the bathroom walls.

Even though he got more clothes to wash than this morning, it doesn't take him that long to clean all of them. After he finished washing everything, he helped his daughter out of the tub, unplugged the bathtub cork, sprayed her body to clean off the bathtub crayon marks, then gave her a dry towel from the cupboard.

"Here, dry yourself. Stay on top of the mat until all the water drip from your body so you won't make a mess out there."

She then moved to the top of the mat and wiped her body to dry, while Dante sprayed the bathroom wall to clean off Angel's drawings. After he's done cleaning off the bathroom, he went out of the bathroom with Angel and told her to get dressed. He was grateful that Lady and Trish had taught Angel how to dress herself – even though sometimes she still needs some help with buttons and back-zippers. He grabbed one of his jogging trousers from the drawer and put them on, scrubbed his hair and wiped his chest with towel to dry off the remaining water, and went out to the bathroom again. He then grabbed the bucket full of washed laundry and took it downstairs. He glanced to the window outside and saw that the rain is not stopping yet and by the sound of the wind that was blowing really hard, it will go for the rest of the night. He then walked into the washing room and grabbed a plastic rope from the cupboard, went out again and scanned the whole shop area, thinking where he should hang it. He decided to hang it from the second floor railing to a devil skull's horn hung beneath his desk – which was an easy task for him because he can jump extremely high. After he finished hanging all the clothes, he glanced over his hands – the scratches were almost gone, but seeing how wild she went when he washed her hair, he need to do something with her nails.

"Angel! Angel!" he cried for his daughter. It only took a few seconds for him to see her popping out of her bedroom door – she is now fully dressed with pink pajamas with white polka-dots, holding Snow in her arms.

"Come down here for a sec, will ya?"

She closed her bedroom door and went down the stairs immediately, while Dante sat down on his chair and dug through the desk drawer looking for a particular thing. She approached his desk and was surprised seeing all the clothes being hung inside the shop. Her attention turned back to her father when he snapped his fingers and gestured her to come to him. Half running, she obediently approached him and climbed on his laps. Dante shifted her position right in the middle between his legs, and suddenly grabbed one of her fingers with his left hand, and then out of the desk drawer, he produced something familiar that is silver - colored. She knew this – another of what she hated the most after shampoos…

"Nail – cutting time, baby."

Angel whimpered and flailed again, kicking away trying to escape but this time Dante pressed her legs with his, making her getting completely stuck and can't move freely. He fixed his grip of the nail cutter and slowly began to cut her nails. Despite of all the impacts that he received from Angel's desperate attempt to escape his grasp, he managed to cut her nails quite neatly. After he cut the last nail on her left pinky finger nail, she scratched her father the way she did in the bathroom, but this time it didn't work – of course, her sharp nails had been cut. She started to kick her father's stomach when Dante went on with the foot nails (which didn't have any effects at all on him) seeing that it's useless, she ran to a corner of the room where Dante have a shelf to keep his books and magazines (made by Morrison) and sulked, whimpering and crying. Dante sighed. He knew that it will take a very long time for her to stop and he's not in the mood to deal with a four-year-old girl's tantrums.

"Hey, come on. I don't want my little lady to have ugly long nails like those scary demons I hunt…"

She didn't budge.

"…Now that your nails are clean and neat, I'm sure that Patty will be happy to polish your nails again…"

She hissed.

Dante sighed again, then turned around and walked towards the fridge. He hoped that Patty didn't miss the note that he hung on the fridge door this morning and bought the thing that he requested in the note and when he opened the fridge, he smiled in relief. She did buy them.

"I still have two cups of strawberry sundae…"

Angel perked up, and quickly turned her head towards Dante, who is now holding two cups of strawberry sundae on his hands and putting them on the kitchen bar table. She dashed quickly from the back edge of the room towards the kitchen bar table, climbed on the one of the seats and reached out her hands to one of the strawberry sundae cups. But before she managed to grab one of them, Dante took them away. She climbed on the table and tried to grasp them from him, but he put his hands up high that even when she stood up on the table she couldn't reach it at all. She pouted and grumbled, gesturing that she wanted them, but Dante made a stern face and shook his head

"Nu-uh, I won't give them to you until you say the magic word" he said

She raised her right hand and signed 'please', but Dante still shook his head

"One more magic word, because you've been a really bad girl in the bath and the nail-cutting this evening"

She grumbled again, and tried to reach the sundaes. She thought that Dante was being off-guard and she would be able to grab them – but of course he didn't, and in the end she fell back on the glass kitchen bar table again. Had she been a demon, she must be dead by now. She finally raised her right hand and signed 'I'm sorry', Dante thought that it was more than enough, and the sundaes are melting if he waited for too long (since he wanted them too) so he told her to sit properly on one of the bar chairs, and after she obeyed, he set one of the cups on the kitchen bar table and gave her a small cake spoon. Angel didn't miss a second – right after she received her spoon, she pulled the cup towards her and started to gobble the strawberry sundae. Meanwhile, Dante grabbed another spoon and started to eat his own share of sundae, sometimes stopping to wipe his daughter's mouth with napkin. Morrison taught her table manners and she's been doing fine learning it, but she somehow failed at that when she have pizza or strawberry sundae in her mouth. She would devour them as if she hadn't been fed for ages.

After the evening snack, Dante brought the cups to the trash bin and throw them away, while he put the spoons in the sink and washed them, then put them on the dish rack to dry. Suddenly, sleepiness struck him and he almost hit the wall when he walked by the pillar. He glanced towards Angel, who is now lying down on top of the sofa. After looking at her sleeping peacefully, he decided not to move her upstairs – he's too sleepy to do so anyways. He turned off all the lights in the shop, and the room got pitch dark. Light only came from the window that lets the moonshine and the street lights came in. Carefully, he walked towards the sofa and climbed on it, and carefully shifted their positions so that now Angel is lying on his stomach, and his head is now on the pillow. Luckily, she didn't wake up at all, and having her lying down on his stomach has its advantages – she is pretty warm, so he won't have to get up again and grab some blankets or sheets. The rain hadn't stopped and the thunders are glaring outside – he is not scared of them, of course. He's a grown man, and a devil hunter. But somehow because Angel is next to him, he felt grateful that she is. He shifted her body again, now assured that she won't be awake so that her head lying on the sofa and her ears were pressed against his chest, and his arms wrapping her warm body.

And then he drifted to sleep with a smile on his face.

The next day, Lady, Trish, Morrison and Patty decided to visit the two because they haven't been answering calls all day. The phone line is on and both of Dante's and Angel's phone are callable, but there had been no answers no matter how many times they called. Worried that something might happen to them, they decided to go together. But when they enter the shop, all they see are dried, wrinkled clothes hanging on lines that are hung across the shop, and the father and daughter fell asleep on the couch. They giggled, trying as hard as they could not to laugh, because it turned out that they didn't answer the phone because they simply fell asleep.

"Let's just him a break, he's probably too tired" Trish said.

So Lady grabbed a blanket from Dante's room upstairs and covered the two sleeping father and daughter with it, and they decided to help him with laundry since it is obvious that the lazy, pig-headed devil hunter had been trying his best to do all the household business (even though he still need to do a hell lot of work on that). After checking the washing machine and proved that Dante isn't lying, Morrison and Lady went out to Wal-Mart with Morrison's Chevrolet to buy a new washing machine for him, while Trish and Patty stayed to help him iron and fold the laundry. Trish picked them up from the clothesline and Patty collected them in a basket. They tried as hard as they could not to burst out laughing when they found Dante's heart-pattern boxers with a big hole on it, and they continued giggling for the rest of the ironing and folding. After they folded them neatly, they first go to Angel's bedroom to put her folded clothes. But when they opened her wardrobe, a mountain – pile of clothes fell from the wardrobe to the floor. Patty kneeled down and examined them.

"It's all clean… but it's messy…" Patty said. The two female looked towards each other with funny faces.

"Patty, let's check Dante's room… shall we?"

The two put the laundry baskets down and rushed into Dante's room and immediately opened the wardrobe. Just as they thought, mountain – pile of clean clothes fell out. The two stared at each other again, and Patty sighed in disappointment. Trish sighed too, and she dug into her pockets and grabbed her gold D&G Edition Motorola V3. She sat down on Dante's messy bed as she dialed, and signaled Patty to start collecting all the mess on the floor. Finally, the one she dialed answered and Trish spoke up

"Lady, are you still in Wal-Mart? Yeah, can you please fetch some clothes hanger – like, enough to hang all the clothes that Dante and Angel have? No – do I look like someone making a dry humor? Just get around 60 of them. I'll explain it when you and Morrison are here. Thanks"

She flipped her phone closed and shoved it back into her pocket, and went off the bed and helped Patty to pick up the mess on the floor.

"Patty, don't bother to fold them"

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious that Dante doesn't have any talent with folding clothes?"

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I'll just teach him to hang everything and store the socks and underwear in the drawers inside the wardrobe. Makes it much easier, right?"

Patty stared at her for a while, and then she nodded.

"Right," she said.

And the two started to grab all the clothes scattered on the floor and throw them into the laundry basket.


End file.
